Alabama hosts national women's basketball team

Tuesday

Jun 10, 2008 at 4:48 PM

The Canadian national women’s wheelchair basketball team has worked out its own free-trade agreement with the University of Alabama.

By Tommy DeasExecutive Sports Editor

TUSCALOOSA | The Canadian national women’s wheelchair basketball team has worked out its own free-trade agreement with the University of Alabama.One member of the team that will represent Canada in this summer’s Paralympic Games in Beijing, China, is already a UA student. Two more members of the Canadian team, and possibly a third, will enroll at Alabama this fall.The UA Wheelchair Athletics Program has attracted the players from across the border, with sophomore Katie Harnock of Toronto already playing for the Alabama women’s wheelchair basketball team and current Canadian national team players Cindy Oullet of Quebec City and Tara Feser of Edmonton, Alberta, joining the program this fall. Janet McLachlan of Vancouver, British Columbia, is also considering joining the UA program.The Canadian team will wrap up a three-day training camp at the UA Student Recreation Center today. The Canadians will join the other three top teams -- the U.S., Australia and Germany -- in the North American Cup tournament at Birmingham’s Lakeshore Foundation starting Thursday.“This really is perfect,” said Tim Frick, head coach of the Canadian national team. “Obviously Alabama is a storied sports university. The opportunity to train somewhere like that is pretty exciting.“We came down here last November. We’ve developed a nice kind of relationship that benefits both programs. Our national team benefits from it because we’ve got some kids down here now and obviously hopefully (Alabama) benefits by getting some recruits and getting exposed to the international game.“It’s a bit of a pipeline, which is nice.”